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Who Uses Ubuntu Linux, and Why? Survey Offers New Insight.

It’s all too common to hear Linux portrayed by detractors as an operating system suitable only for longtime hackers and Â“hobbyists,Â” as it was put in one recent example.

The reality, however, is very different, and a recent survey of Ubuntu Linux users paints a detailed picture of not just who’s actually using the free and open source OS, but how and why.

Far from young hackers living in their parents’ basements–an image so commonly perpetuated–the results suggest that the majority of today’s Ubuntu users are a global and professional group who have been using the OS for two to five years for a mix of work and leisure; they value its open source nature, security, speed, and user experience, but still typically use Windows as well somewhere in their lives.

‘Very Easy’ or ‘Easy’

Close to 20,000 people responded to Canonical’s recent user survey, which was conducted not just in English but also in Spanish and Portuguese. Most were between 25 and 35 years of age, and the vast majority–more than 96 percent–were male.

Â“We canÂ’t extrapolate from this data, but certainly such a hugely weighted response means we have to look at how we make the product, the community and probably both, more appealing to both genders,Â” noted Canonical spokesman Gerry Carr in a recent blog post.

An overwhelming majority–some 87 percent–of all Ubuntu users found the process of installing the operating system Â“very easyÂ” or Â“easy,Â” according to the survey results; only 2.6 percent found it Â“difficultÂ” or Â“very difficult,Â” thus countering another longstanding Linux stereotype.

Almost 77 percent use Windows at well; only 16.7 percent, by contrast, use Mac OS X in addition to Ubuntu Linux, according to the survey.